I recently graduated from Harvard Law School. This is my weblog. It tries to be funny. E-mail me if you like it.
For an index of what's lurking in the archives, sorted by category, click here.

Wednesday, September 17, 2003

Thanks to How Appealing for the link this afternoon. Appreciated. Welcome to any new readers finding me from over there.

This afternoon, the law school dean gave a "State of The Law School" address, followed by a party at a hotel reception hall. Given that the party was alreday scheduled, it was safe to assume the state of the law school would be good. Or else the party would be an awfully glum affair. "The state of the law school is bad. We'll be getting rid of most of you tomorrow. Come to the party." She said good things are in store for the distant future when we'll no longer be there -- more technology infrastructure, new buildings, nicer facilities... for the law students to come, after we leave. For us, free coffee and some more weights in the gym. I don't mean to minimize those two developments. It's interesting to think about this stuff -- this is why institutions need deans, and people in charge with the long-term in mind. The people there now will never see the benefits of what's to come; and so we need to just accept that, and in some ways act as advocates for the students of the future... if we think these are good changes, it's almost our obligation to support them even though we'll never reap the benefits.

It's why it's so hard to make grand changes in extracurricular organizations in college or here -- because the students turn over every year, and no one's there for more than a little while, there's no one looking out for the long term, and no one there to guide the ship and put it on a course. Everything's year-to-year -- and some things just can't be done in a year. The law school newspaper changes layouts every year; the a cappella group changes repertoire. These are the easy things. Big things -- developing a loyal audience, creating some infrastructure and plans for growth -- take time an energy that transitory bodies can't focus on. There's no steward in charge, like a dean.

I don't know what my point is. Her speech was really good. I'm excited to be part of the community here. The party was okay. I'll link to the story in tomorrow's Record when it comes out.